“The only way to grow a company is to grow the people first.” Verne Harnish, in his book Scaling Up.
As I told you in numerous articles, People are essential to your company’s growth and success.
But… do you have the Right People doing the Right Things, with clear accountability and metrics?
Sometimes your team that was great last year just can’t keep up with the growth in your business today.
As you grow, you need everyone to step up, learn and do more, and work together on the right things.
You need your team leaders and managers to become awesome trainers, coaches, and cheerleaders for their people and for the company’s goals.
Sometimes the opposite happens— your key people become frustrated with the added responsibilities or avoid them altogether getting stuck in the day-to-day.
Or they start having “communication” or staff issues that just get worse.
When you think about the Right People, there are 3 levels that you need to get right as part of an aligned team for growth.
When we say “People”– there are three levels that are all important to get right as you build your team of A-Players:
For each of the 3 levels, there are three elements to “get right” as part of an aligned team for growth.
1. LEADERS- define clear accountability for every role
One Page Personal Plan– Each leader should examine the 4 key areas of life/work to ensure their personal goals are being met
Functional Accountability Chart [FACE] – This tool helps you map the key functional areas of your business, to make sure that everyone has a person accountable for results
Process Accountability Chart [PACE]- This tool maps your core processes in your business, again clarifying who is accountable and how the function should be measured for success.
2. MANAGERS- Retain and super-charge A-Players with good managers
Keeping People Engages– Play to their strengths, remove obstacles to performance, align individual work to company goals, recognize and reward them for great performance
Develop people from Day 1 – create a first 90-day onboarding plan, create training plans and show managers how to develop their team and transfer skills
3. TEAM- Hire A-Players at all levels
Clarify Roles: Define the job purpose, outcomes, competencies. I like to call these roles- Responsibilities- Results.
Blend specialists into a complementary team and cross-train as much as possible.
Attract the Right People who fit the job AND your culture/ core values.
Update your selection system with a more systematic process to evaluate Job Fit and Culture Fit, attract A-Players with opportunities to grow and make an impact
I hope this helps you visualize how you can get all three levels of your team- leaders, managers, and staff aligned and rowing in the same direction.
Next step- develop your “human” resources by:
1. Get the Right Managers—to engage with these 5 critical activities:
To retain A-Players, you need great managers.
• Help people play to their strengths, i.e. do what energizes them. • Remove obstacles that hinder performance. • Set clear expectations and help people see how their work links to the company goals/priorities. • Recognize and appreciate people. • Don’t hire many average employees. Hire the best, pay them above-market rates and invest in developing them.
2. Develop people.
Invest at least 2-3% of your payroll on training.
Use onboarding to inculcate your new staff into your company culture, expose them to the organization’s key work areas and connect them with other colleagues.
Leverage modern learning platforms and start weekly coaching conversations to focus, train and develop your people.
I have seen the “best places to work” do all of the above, and those that don’t commit to getting the right managers and developing people [by great managers] continue to struggle with attracting, retaining and motivating their staff.
You may have heard this quote: “The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer” -Peter Drucker
One of the best presentations I attended at the Scaling Up Summit in October was by Christo Popov, a coach for fast-growing businesses in Europe.
He started with that quote, and simplified strategy down to three crucial elements –
What is “the market” for your goods and services?
Who is your ideal customer?
What do customers need?
-> and then figure out your most profitable offering: “What almost no companies offer but [most] or some clients care about.” [credited to Kevin Daum of the Awesome Experience.]
Sounds so SIMPLE right?
Yet according to statistics Christo shared:
75% of businesses have not clearly defined their capabilities
90% admit to missing opportunities
80% of employees don’t understand their strategy
8% of those with a clearly defined strategy actually execute it well!
The moral of the story is that this lack of strategic focus and execution planning by your competitors is leaving a potentially underserved client-base for you.
This is the concept of a “niche” business.
When you offer something your competitors do not and your customers want it… you have more pricing power and higher revenues and profits.
This is far preferable to being a tiny fish in a big ocean of companies with a commodity competing on price. Based on economic theory, they beat each other up on price until it’s “perfect competition” – meaning very small profits. That’s not the ideal business to be in.
The framework we like to use with our clients is the “Core Customer” exercise that outlines your “Sandbox” (who you help) and your “Brand Promise” (how you define your differentiated product or service).
If you can clearly define these two strategic elements, you will stand out in the eyes of your customer, as well as make business decisions to keep focus on delivering the best experience for your customers.
Resources
To see the list of all “7 Strata” layers to built into your market dominating strategy– click here to download the Scaling Up 7 Strata worksheet.
Watch my video recording summary of Christo Popov’s full “Fast Track” strategy method: “Re-Position Your Products and Services for Emerging Trends & Competitive Advantage” Video link [22 minutes]: https://vimeo.com/419957867
When people talk about having a “strategy,” they often consider this just one thing– usually a revenue growth target.
While it’s important to have a clear and focused one-phase strategy, there are actually 7 “Strata” [layers] of strategic thinking, from the Scaling Up process:
1. Mindshare — what words do you own in the minds of customers and prospects?
2. Brand Promise— who is your core customer, what needs are you providing for them, three brand promises that are compelling reasons to buy from you, and metrics to know if you are delivering on those promises.
3. Brand Promise guarantee— what you offer to your customers if you break your promise
4. One-phrase strategy— the key competitive “lever” that drives profits, serves your core customer and repels other prospects and competitors [example IKEA is flat-pack furniture]
5. Differentiating activities-– what your business does to execute your one-phrase strategy and is hard for your competitors to copy
6. X-factor— your hidden advantage that allows you to deliver 10-100 times the value compared to your competitors, often expressed as Profit per X [an example is Southwest airlines focus on profit per plane, not per passenger or mile]
7. BHAG [credited to Jim Collins]– your Big Hairy Audacious Goal– your 25-year goal that is aligned with your Purpose and often expressed by X-factor
All of these 7 Strata are designed to be aligned with your Purpose and Core Values and clearly communicated to your whole team on a One-Page Strategic Plan.
When you have clarity and focus on these 7 key elements, they are an amazing filter to make decisions and focus your priorities and efforts.
If you would like more explanation and examples, contact us to receive an executive summary of Scaling Up by Verne Harnish.
To start defining your specific “7 Strata” layers to built into your market dominating strategy– click here to download the Scaling Up 7 Strata worksheet.
Not everyone has the determination and stamina to grow their company. It’s not for quitters or the faint of heart.
Maybe this describes your life today:
I know many owners who have reached overwhelm or burnout – they actually dread adding another customer or employee.
It feels like they are just adding more weight to heavy anchor they are pulling uphill, and dragging some of their team with them.
To make matters worse, increased sales cause cash flow issues and profits aren’t rising as fast.
They work long hours, and sometimes they wonder if the journey is worth the effort.
When I was VP in my family business, my Mom and I felt the same way, and we had all 4 of these growing pains:
STRATEGY: Lack of Strategy to grow sustainable sales
PEOPLE: Not having the right people in the right roles who are accountable for results
EXECUTION: Processes and communication strain or break down
CASH flow issues
If this sounds like you, then I want to share with you the “Scaling Up” process described in the best-selling book by Verne Harnish, and used by thousands of companies to grow faster, more profitably, with less drama.
